Julian Fellowes

Based Maggie Smith s Gosford Park character on his great aunt.

Fellowes proposed to his wife Emma Joy 20 minutes after first meeting her. She is Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent and was invested as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 2000. Emma is a great-great-niece of (General) Lord Kitchener and on 9 May 2012 The Queen issued a Royal Warrant of Precedence granting The Lady Fellowes of West Stafford the same rank and title as a daughter of an Earl, as if her late father had survived his brother and therefore succeeded to the title of Earl Kitchener. She is also a vegetarian.

Father of Peregrine Kitchener-Fellowes , born 1991.

His ancestors include Sir James Fellowes, Physician to the Forces during the reign of Britains George III, and Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Fellowes who served with Lord Nelson.

Was on University Challenge representing Magdalene College, Cambridge at age 19. He had a bad bout of flu while recording the show. With a temperature of 103 degrees, his mother insisted he still take part in the program.

In the 1970s, wrote romantic novels under the pseudonym Rebecca Greville.

Conducted a scriptwriting master class at the Cinemagic World Screen Festival for Young People in 2002 in Belfast, N.Ireland.

Is an avid follower of TV soap "Coronation Street" .

Lives in Dorset, England, close to the cottage once owned by writer Thomas Hardy. His estate includes a manor house built in 1633 and a newer portion built in 1840, all on 50 acres.

His two dogs are named Meg and Humbug.

Uncle of Jessica Fellowes.

Youngest brother of four including David Fellowes and Rory Fellowes.

Was once a member of the Cambridge footlights comedy group. Other members through the years include Stephen Fry , Hugh Laurie , John Cleese , Tim Brooke-Taylor , Bill Oddie and Eric Idle.

He played Winston Churchill in both The Treaty and "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" .

On 12 January 2011, he was made a Life Peer of the United Kingdom of Great-Britain and Northern Ireland and is now formally known as Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, of West Stafford in the County of Dorset.

In 2009 he was made Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Dorset.

On 15 October 1998 he and his wife Emma Joy Kitchener (b. 18 February 1963) legally changed their family name to Kitchener-Fellowes by Deed Poll. He continued to be known professionally as Julian Fellowes. They live at Stafford House, West Stafford, Dorset.

In 1983 Julian almost landed a plum role on the TV series "Fantasy Island" where he was to be a possible replacement for Herv Villechaize s butler. If he had got the part, it would have meant an 8-year contract and, as fate would have it, "Downton Abbey" might never have happened.

Is a big fan of the TV series "Smash" .

In October 2014 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester in recognition of his international reputation in creative writing and the performing arts.

We live in an era of tremendous dishonesty where people, even nice,people, will say things they know are not true because they want to be,perceived as someone who thinks they are true. But I think this is,dangerous. I think personal dishonesty in a society is as dangerous as,it is in an individual. For most of us the biggest journey in life, and,certainly the toughest journey, is towards self-knowledge.

There are limits to what any of us can achieve in life. If I wanted to,be a catwalk model, I would be in trouble. But the greatest limit of,all is when we do not know ourselves and when we do not admit that,truth about ourselves to ourselves, and that buggers up our life.

I have an absolutely phobic horror of controlled relationships. I,despise controllers. And when I see that slightly patronizing,relationship going on in front of me, as you often do in our industry,where the man who quite deliberately takes a partner who is less,sophisticated, younger, from a less advantaged background or whatever,and he is becoming a kind of Higgins to her Eliza, I just want to punch,him. I really hate it.

Advice from his upper-class father: If you have the misfortune to be,born into a generation which must earn its living, you might as well do,something amusing.

[on the detractors of "Downton Abbey" (2010) ] The real problem is,with people who are insecure socially. They think to show how smart,they are by picking holes in the programme to promote their own,poshness and to show that their knowledge is greater.

Los Angeles is a town where status is all and status is only given to success. Dukes and millionaires and playboys by the dozen may arrive and be glad-handed for a time, but they are unwise if they choose to live there because the town is, perhaps even creditably, committed to recognising only professional success, and nothing else, to be of lasting value. The burdensome obligation imposed on all its inhabitants is therefore to present themselves as successes, because otherwise they forfeit their right to respect in that environment . . . There is no place in that town for the "interesting failure" or for anyone who is not determined on a life that will be shaped in a upward-heading curve.

I would fight dragons, I would walk over flaming coals, I would enter the Valley of the Dead, if I thought I might have a chance of your heart.

Oliver did not seem to understand that the only real fulfilment on this earth was to be gained through hard work. Life as a series of momentary pleasures satisfied no one. He needed to make an investment in it, an investment of himself.

Especially as I was an old friend, or at least I was a person she had known for a long time, which after a certain point is almost the same thing. . .

It is a truism but it is still true that the longer one knows people the less relevant it becomes whether or not one liked them initially.

Very few Englishmen ever ask a woman anything about themselves. They choose instead to lecture their dinner neighbors on a new and better route to the M5, or to praise their own professional achievements. So is a man does express any curiosity about a woman sitting next to him, about her feelings, about the life she is leading, she will generally tell him anything he cares to know.

I always like to arrive at the airport early to enjoy breakfast and lounge about so that when I get on the plane all my travel fever has disappeared.